A good coach should NEVER tell a runner to "slow down" during practice

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

+1

Obviously doesn’t coach... or coach good kids

I never tell my athletes to slow down during practice. I will, however, tell them to pace themself while I am on the sideline yelling at them during races because I don't want then to go into lactic asid.

Slow down.

People who watch too many sports movies think that the job of a coach is to motivate and get kids hyped up to train/compete. The real job of a coach is to hold the reins.

I became a much better runner once I realized that 8X1000m at 3:10 meant "actually run them all in 3:10, dumbass," not "your job is to crush that goal time, so go out and run them all in 3 flat." The workout is for training. Save your racing for the race.

Michigan xc coach wrote:

I never tell my athletes to slow down during practice. I will, however, tell them to pace themself while I am on the sideline yelling at them during races because I don't want then to go into lactic asid.

This. Train hard as you can and racing will be easy.

A good coach will educate their athletes and get the to buy into his system. A good coach will teach the purpose of each training stimulus and get the athlete to understand why they are running the different paces.

If your athlete is running too fast and you think you need to tell them tooflow down, you have not done your job and are therefore not a good coach. Athletes of good coaches will train correctly.

By the way, OP...the go with the flow philosophy you described is probably why you are only a 4:30 miler. Just sayin'.

The430miler,

I hated you 15 years ago and i still hate you. Not often do I agree with anything you have to say. But this is one of those rare occasions.

You are actually correct here.

This is very, very wrong. Anyone who's ever "felt good" and decided to turn that 6x1 at threshold pace into a 8x1 at 10k pace, and then bombed the next few workouts, or ended up with a persistent cold, knows this is very, very wrong. The human body is a machine and like any machine needs to be finely tuned. You go with the science, not "the flow".

Supernova xc wrote:

Michigan xc coach wrote:

I never tell my athletes to slow down during practice. I will, however, tell them to pace themself while I am on the sideline yelling at them during races because I don't want then to go into lactic asid.

This. Train hard as you can and racing will be easy.

A real coach would know how to spell acid and that it's not really a thing.

Obilisk18 wrote:

This is very, very wrong. Anyone who's ever "felt good" and decided to turn that 6x1 at threshold pace into a 8x1 at 10k pace, and then bombed the next few workouts, or ended up with a persistent cold, knows this is very, very wrong. The human body is a machine and like any machine needs to be finely tuned. You go with the science, not "the flow".

Especially true for inexperienced runners with decent speed.

Another +1.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

Nobody gets a medal for winning the Tuesday workout!

I'm gonna go the extra mile here and add to 430milers post.

A should should never tell one if his athletes to slow down during practice or a race. Not only is the o.p. correct, but he is absolutely correct.

Also, I coach track and xc at a junior college.

Cheers

Your Write wrote:

A good coach will educate their athletes and get the to buy into his system. A good coach will teach the purpose of each training stimulus and get the athlete to understand why they are running the different paces.

If your athlete is running too fast and you think you need to tell them tooflow down, you have not done your job and are therefore not a good coach. Athletes of good coaches will train correctly.

By the way, OP...the go with the flow philosophy you described is probably why you are only a 4:30 miler. Just sayin'.

So in your mind, buying into the program makes one able to pace perfectly at all times? The fact that my coach wants me to run my tempo run at 5:34 pace doesn't mean that I'm going to be able to hit that pace perfectly all the time. It's still helpful to have him there to let me know if I'm fast or slow every so often along the course.

Sorry left out the word coach.

Not only is the o.p. not wrong, but he is also not incorrect. A coach is just there for advise and nothing more. Do what your legs feel is right. Toodles

Your Write wrote:

A good coach will educate their athletes and get the program and buy into his system

Lol. So you don't question anything in life?

There's a difference between trusting your coach and surrendering to a dictatorship. A runner-coach relationship is not a dictatorship. It's a 2 way street, and some coaches are just dumbos.

I have a girl who is both fast and smart, and she knows she needs to run certain paces in workouts, but she has so much leg speed she gets a little excited the first 150—she needs to be told to slow down. It’s fine. No ones upset. Her training is better because of it. Her races are better because of it.

So what exactly are we doing wrong? Let’s be glad you’re not her coach.

Jason Mason wrote:

Sorry left out the word coach.

Not only is the o.p. not wrong, but he is also not incorrect. A coach is just there for advise and nothing more. Do what your legs feel is right. Toodles

See this is the problem with coaches. They don’t know how to “Coach” proper running. They let kids run paces in workouts that have no correlation to what they should actually be running.

If you really know what your doing you know what your looking for in terms of effort, stride pattern, and breathing all within the constraints of certain splits they should be around. Not “ oh you feel good so let’s see how fast you can go today.”